Can single coils rock hard?

[MSGfan]

Gary Moore sounded pretty righteous on his red Strat back in his metal days.

Gary Moore used a creme colored stock strat (single coils) about 90% of the time back in his hard rock/metal days but switched to a Les Paul (humbuckers) when he started playing blues.
Go figuar that one out! For most players it's the oposite!

[straycat]

Little 59's are great when one is the only pickup in the guitar.I put one in my 08 Gibson melody maker and it sounds fat and thick but its a stacked single.
My parts mutt tele has an old 70's Fender single in the bridge and a Gretsch lap steel pickup in the neck and I get some major metal tones.
I'm using an RS upgrade kit with a 536k vol pot RS vintage cap and 250k tone pot.
I don't know what it is with the old Fender single but it growls like crazy.
My guess its the fact the bridge pickup is mounted to the bridge plate thats why it sounds that way
[/IMG]

[guitarsjb]

uhm, no they can't.

Ok, just kidding...

[Grandturk]

Little 59's are great when one is the only pickup in the guitar.I put one in my 08 Gibson melody maker and it sounds fat and thick but its a stacked single.

No... its a side-by side humbucker. There's nothing single coil about it.

[straycat]

Thanks GT good to know.

[Chowderboots]

What about Pete Townshend up through about 1972? He used Strats, Teles, and most notably SGs with P90s, right? I know he's used Strats in the past decade or so as well.

And Entwistle used single coils for most of that time as well. Sounded awesome.

[DonP]

I had Duncan Cool Rails for years - those things sucked. Aren't the Vintage Rails the split rail system - its designed to sound like a single coil.

After trying Dimarzio's Super Distortion strat rail, I'm generally down on all Duncan rail (or side by side) pickups - Hot Rails, Lil JB, Lil 59, Lil Demon, Cool Rails - all of which I've tried over the years and none of which left me warm and fuzzy.

Yep, Vintage rails are some sort of split rail.


Which single coil NECK pickup would you use for a Maiden tone given all you have tried? I was going to go for a Hot Rail since the Iron Maiden strat came with a pair.

[DonP]

Single coils can rock... harder than anything else. I'm not joking. Bare knuckle pickups the sinner. Search for sound clips on their forum. I was completely blown away when i first heard them. I'm going to buy a sinner set for sure. And they are true single coils. Their output is about 21k.

Does the Sinner at 21K still sound like a vintage strat?

[DonP]

My parts mutt tele has an old 70's Fender single in the bridge and a Gretsch lap steel pickup in the neck and I get some major metal tones.
I'm using an RS upgrade kit with a 536k vol pot RS vintage cap and 250k tone pot.
I don't know what it is with the old Fender single but it growls like crazy.
My guess its the fact the bridge pickup is mounted to the bridge plate thats why it sounds that way
[/IMG]

I'd be curious as to how this would sound. A Tele is the last of the classics I need.

[Grandturk]

Which single coil NECK pickup would you use for a Maiden tone given all you have tried? I was going to go for a Hot Rail since the Iron Maiden strat came with a pair.

You know... I was interested in this as well. Just this evening I recorded a jam with the YJM in my one strat and then with the PAF in my Murray. Surprisingly, the YJM was very close in tone to the PAF. (edit - OK, you can definately hear the PAF is smoother, and the YJM has more single coil "bounce" to it). Check it out:


edit... hold on.. uploading...

Hope this works:

White strat - http://www.soundclick.com/player/sin...songID=8115560

first half is the YJM in the neck, then I switch to the Super D strat at the bridge

Murray strat - http://www.soundclick.com/player/sin...songID=8115559

again, first half is the PAF 36th, the the Super D in the bridge

[superbadboy2]

Does the Sinner at 21K still sound like a vintage strat?

Well... I never tried them but as i said i heard sound clips and the bridge is fat but i don't know about the vintage tones as there aren't much sound demos.

[MartinBarre]

White strat - http://www.soundclick.com/player/sin...songID=8115560

first half is the YJM in the neck, then I switch to the Super D strat at the bridge

Murray strat - http://www.soundclick.com/player/sin...songID=8115559

again, first half is the PAF 36th, the the Super D in the bridge

Nice playing and tone man! However, neither of those clips sounded much like Dave's tone to me.
I prefer the first clip, but maybe you played that a wee bit sweeter.

[straycat]

Don P The neck pick up is kind of dark but what neck pick up isn't in a tele.It does have some sparkle to it kind of like a P-90.
The bridge will sting pretty hard when full on with OD.Using both pick ups is where this guitar really shines tons of low end and just enough highs to balance it all out.
When running both pick ups its a quite as a mouse.Neck or bridge you get that 60 cycle hum.FWIW the body is heavy and is poplar.

[DonP]

I'm not too familiar with Teles, so a lot more experimenting is in order. Next week I can go to the Nashville GC and goof off all night.

[straycat]

Don you will notice how dark the neck pickup is when you play one.
A/B one with an ash body that might be different.
I've tried strat pick ups with some success but not what I needed.
May try a tri-sonic next just to see what it sounds like.
My tele is a beater so I didn't mind routing it out.Might just have to go with a humbucker thats just thin and shrill like a JB.
Gretsch makes a mini humbucker but a bud has one in his tele and it sounds really muddy to me.
Mine is a solid metal sounding tele just not metal looking.
Took it to GC today and let some of the guys noodle with it and they thought it sounded damn good thru an SLO 100 half stack.